Morning all. I need to get back to shifting my alarm clock out of easy reach. I moved it back into place before I left and forgot to push it out of snooze button range when I returned. Soon thought, soon the time change will be upon us and the hour stolen from our mornings last spring will be returned! But for now, I need to move the alarm clock. To the Prompt!
I like the idea of someone who changed their life having to play his former self and wonder about the changes, deciding to keep them or go back to old ways. But while the premise is good, the story idea needs work before it can be written. It is something to think about though.
Wednesday, October 18th: All of the pieces were in place.
All of the pieces were in place. Harry was all set to swoop in with the cavalry if things looked like they were taking a turn. Austin thought of his friend and tried not to smile. He was sure Harry thought he was leading a cavalry charge even if he did only have a handful of policemen with him. Personally he hoped that Harry would be disappointed, that things would be settled amicably without the intervention of the police.
He just wasn’t counting on it.
‘Which is why Harry is there in the first place,’ he reminded himself.
While Harry was back up, other pieces were actively in place. Over the past few months he replaced nearly half of the staff with people of his own. As The Oasis had a high turn over in staff it hadn’t been difficult. The staff was over worked and under paid and forced to put up with things that most people didn’t consider part of a working environment any more.
The owners of the Oasis saw no reason to protect their employees against rougher customers and as a result nearly every employee soon looked for work elsewhere. It was not a business that engendered loyalty. While he felt bad for sending good people in there, they knew they were going for a reason and that their time there was limited. He was also making sure they were paid extra for their stint in the club.
He was certain that no one knew of the additions he made to the club. While the most loyal staff were the ones who enjoyed the rougher atmosphere, they were so used to staff turn over that they barely paid attention to the names and faces of the everchanging servers.
Austin took a deep breath. He couldn’t afford to worry about the safety of the others at the moment. Right now he needed to trust that they were in place and ready to help him. He had his own role to play. He walked over to the full length mirror and looked himself over. Once the outfit he currently had on would have been standard daily wear for him. He would have put on this suit without a second thought. Now he found his eyes dancing over the details, the expert cut tailored to suit him, the expensive materials and latest fashion details that would make it disposable as fickle fashion changed.
How many suits had he purchased, had tailored to his exact specifications and then discarded when one small element was no longer the rage? He lost count. ‘It’s not me anymore,’ he reminded himself.
Austin took a deep breath. ‘It is tonight. It has to be me tonight.’
Although he left and ended up, through a series of circumstances not entirely of his control, with a full life makeover, no one here knew that. This was the first time he had been back since and now he had to pretend to be his former self to get others out of trouble. Trouble they might not have gotten in had he not gone away.
‘Even Harry thinks this is still me,’ Austin thought. It weighed heavily on him. The fact that everyone involved thought of him as he once was without seeing the changes. Were the changes only surface after all, or did those he know here only see the surface? He didn’t know, but realized this was not the time to contemplate it. The car was pulling up and it was time to go.
Ten til Midnight 